


In Each Generation

by cougarlips



Series: shadowhunters buffyverse!au [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Bisexual Character, Canon Gay Character, Gen, Hurt Jace Wayland, Inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), M/M, Vampires, Werewolves, basically a buffy-verse au, clary is the slayer, im?????? not sorry, more or less follows season 4 of btvs w the initiative, no actual buffy-verse characters, the clave is the initiative, the gi joes are the shadowhunters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 15:50:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9392216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cougarlips/pseuds/cougarlips
Summary: “All the legends are true,” they said at the exact same time.Alec edged near the doorway, hand poised over his bow. Jace and Clary stared one another down, disbelief on both of their faces.“What are you talking about?” Jace insisted.“I’m -- what do you know about it?” she countered.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't read the books, and even though i -- loosely -- based this off of s4 of btvs, it's been years since i watched and it (& tbqh it's my least favorite season bc even tho i love tara more than life itself i can't stand riley and my love for her doesn't make up for how awful he is) ((whoops))
> 
> it's still only the very basics that this series will revolve around though so you don't need an encyclopedic knowledge of the buffyverse to get this. the basics are: 
> 
>   * clary is the slayer, or the Chosen One who is gifted with superhuman strength used to fight humans, vampires, demons, and other creepy crawly creatures, though that is _not_ to say the slayer doesn't ally herself with them. or at least buffy allied herself with them. lbr -- clary would utilize any help she could get
>   * the clave is taking the place of “the initiative”, which was introduced in s4 of btvs, and is a military task force that kills or "”””studies”””” (read: experiments on) demons, vampires, werewolves, and other creepy crawly creatures bc they don’t view them as being anything but dumb animals basically
>   * the shadowhunters are basically the initiative’s soldiers/army, which in the show were almost exclusively called GI joes
> 


“ _All the legends are true_ ,” they said at the exact same time.

Alec edged near the doorway, hand poised over his bow. Jace and Clary stared one another down, disbelief on both of their faces.

“What are _you_ talking about?” Jace insisted.

“I’m -- what do _you_ know about it?” she countered. 

A few feet away, Izzy rolled her eyes at them. She tried to divert her attention towards her newly-turned vampire friend, though he paid more mind to his best friend and the third Lightwood than her.

Jace interrupted Clary with a defiant, “I’m a _Shadowhunter_ ,” and he lifted his blade as if simply showing her the inlaid filigree she would suddenly understand.

“I’m the Slayer,” she said at the same time, pulling from her jacket sleeve a wooden stake.

Alec tuned the sounds of their voices out, instead focusing on the lair Clary based herself in -- though, he supposed “lair” was not quite the right word.

It was her family’s home, Izzy told him, but when her mother disappeared on the evening she found out about her destiny they turned it into their HQ. With the aid of some downworlders, they placed as many safeguards and wards on the building as they possibly could.

He rolled his eyes over the second exit, where Luke Garroway stood. Detective by day and werewolf by night, Luke acted as Clary’s pseudo-father, though legally he had no ties to her. Alec could see in his build and his body a specific sort of military training, though, and he knew -- even aside from the man’s lycanthropy -- that Luke was not the sort of man to be tested.

A rustle near the rafters brought Alec’s gaze towards the ceiling, and when he met a pair of deep russet eyes, he took a steadying breath. “That’s Raphael,” Izzy whispered in his ear.

The man jumped down and took his place in the far corner of the room, hiding in its shadows as if it were second nature. He looked twenty years old, but Alec could see the years in his eyes, betraying his otherwise youthful appearance. He had to have several decades on him at least, Alec deduced, as his skin still maintained a marble-like quality and not the powdery texture old vampires carried.

Simon Lewis looked back and forth between Clary and Jace, Izzy and Raphael, Luke, and Alec. He, Alec could tell, was only a fledgling. He was too jumpy, too slow, too _anxious_ about the situation to have any experience with the supernatural world. His eyes lingered on Raphael, who, Alec noticed, ignored Simon much like he ignored the fly buzzing around the room or Clary’s rising decibels.

“If you, and your family, and your _ancestors_ have all trained and operated as these… Shadowhunters,” Clary argued, her face as red as the hair framing it, “then how come I’ve never heard of you, huh?”

It wasn’t Jace who answered her, though he opened his mouth and was ready to reply; it was Luke, stepping forward and resting his hand on her shoulder with a somber expression on his face. “We didn’t want you finding out about them,” he said. “Your mother and I went AWOL when you were just a baby and we heard there was a chance you could become the next Slayer.”

Alec appraised Luke again, and he could see it: the way Luke moved without making a sound, the way he was proficient with every weapon he laid his hands on and had a plan as soon as he walked into a room.

“Did you leave before or after you turned?” Alec asked him.

Luke looked over Clary’s shoulder at Alec. “Even if I hadn’t turned, I was going to leave with Jocelyn. I couldn’t stand by and tolerate how the Hunters treated Downworlders any longer. The fact that I turned only cemented that I wasn’t one of them anymore.”

Jace’s eyebrows knit together and he was quick to argue. “What do you mean, how we treat Downworlders? Everything we do is to protect them!”

It was Izzy who replied. “Protect them, Jace?” she repeated. “Sure, yeah, the Shadowhunters _protect_ the Downworlders. They also keep a brick wall around themselves and wards around the Clave to alert them to any Downworlder presence. They had us hunting Downworlders, but they told us it was to protect the humans, or they told us they were _just_ demons.”

Raphael scoffed from his corner. “We may be part demon, but we’re part human, too. Most of us anyway.” Simon, now standing next to Clary, nodded vehemently.

“Don’t tell me you don’t see it,” Izzy pleaded. “Don’t tell me you can’t see how Mom and Dad look at Downworlders. Alec?”

All six pairs of eyes suddenly turned towards Alec. Carefully, he tightened the cross of his arms over his chest. “You know I’ve seen it, Iz,” he told her, “but that doesn’t excuse us for going along with it for so long.”

* * *

They continued meeting against Alec’s best wishes. It started with Izzy texting her location and an SOS -- nights when Luke had to make himself scarce, nights when Raphael and Simon had to search for Simon’s sire, nights when they simple didn’t have the resources to go around.

It was a strange relationship Alec managed to nurse. He quickly decided he could care less for Clary; it was her “destiny” that roped Izzy into her crusade to find her mother and ensnare Jace as well. If not for her desperate pleas they could have left them alone and left the Institute of their own accord, but instead they risked high treason and a fate worse than death if caught with the rebels.

But Luke he did linger towards. His past as an ex-Shadowhunter sparked an interest in Alec he didn’t know he had. He had the chance to find out first-hand what a fully trained Shadowhunter was capable of, but he also had the chance to learn about the prejudices he had been raised to believe from someone who lived on both sides of the coin.

Even Raphael caught Alec’s interest, though the man was as cool and aloof as any stereotype. Raphael, at nearly eighty years old, had his own share of stories to tell regarding his encounters with the Shadowhunters. His no-nonsense attitude clicked instantly with Alec’s intolerance of bullshit, and the two -- when offered the opportunity to interact --  found themselves talking more and more.

He thought the arrangement might even be an okay thing until Jace insisted on answering Clary’s SOS on his own and nearly killed himself in the process.

It was Izzy who gave Alec the address of one of Clary’s friends, someone who she promised was an excellent healer. She swore Jace would be fine and this man -- Magnus Bane, she called him -- was the best at what he did.

Alec stepped inside the building, punching the top-most floor of the elevator, nervousness welling underneath his skin as each second ticked by. Finally, the double doors slid open, and he nearly froze at the sight before him.

Luke, Izzy, Clary, Simon, Raphael, and a sixth unfamiliar man hovered over a table where Alec could just barely recognise Jace’s messy blonde hair, stained through with mud and blood where it should’ve been as light as sunshine.

He surged forward, taking Jace’s hand in his own. Underneath him, Jace groaned. “Alec, I’m fine --”

But it was not Alec or even Izzy who shushed him; it was Magnus, whose hands emitted an inhuman glow and hovered over Jace’s middle. “Don’t make a liar out of yourself,” he said.

“Where’s your faith?” Jace asked him, but he winced and groaned in pain as Magnus’s magic worked deeper into his body.

Magnus, in turn, shook his head and began kneading the air above Jace, his magic mimicking his movements precisely. “Keep talking and I’ll knock you out myself. Everyone else --” he glanced up, and for a second Alec thought he caught a flash of golden irises before they were gone, replaced by a warm tawny -- “I need space.”

Clary and Simon stepped away with Luke and Izzy following suit, but Alec remained by his side, hand still clenched tight around Jace’s. Magnus followed his hand, eyes trailing over the runes adorning his skin, up the length of Alec’s neck before settling on his eyes, and he heaved a deep sigh.

“I’m not going to let him die, so if you’re worried about trusting a lowly Downworlder with his life, don’t. Who are you, anyway? I believe I’ve told everyone to clear out.”

“I’m Alec Lightwood,” he replied, a scowl beginning to set on his face.

Magnus scoffed. “Ah, yes, I know your family. Maryse and Robert, correct?” he asked. Before Alec could answer, Magnus continued: “Your mother is such a pleasant woman, isn’t she? I’ve known her for most of her life, and never once has she referred to me by my given name.”

Jace squeezed Alec’s hand. “Just because we’re Lightwoods doesn’t mean we are our parents,” he defended.

Under his breath, Alec caught Magnus mumbling, “Yeah, I get that. So -- brothers? Best friends? Partners?” He gestured towards Alec and Jace’s linked hands.

Jace laughed, the south cutting off to give way to a wince at the motion. “Brothers,” he answered through a wince.

Magnus’s hands stilled over Jace. With a slightly apologetic expression, he waved his fingers over Jace’s head. Seconds later, Jace’s eyes drooped shut and his breathing evened out. The hand inside Alec’s slacked; Magnus met Alec’s look with a shrug. “He doesn’t take well to sitting still. He’ll wake up in an hour or so.”

Alec nodded shortly. He lifted his hand slowly and pushed Jace’s hair out of his face, much preferring to ignore the way Magnus watched his every move with a look that said he could see through him.

“We’re Parabatai,” Alec explained. “Closer than brothers -- if anything were to happen to him….”

Magnus hummed in response. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” he began, “but is it not forbidden to fall in love with your Parabatai?”

At the way Alec froze, Magnus shook his head. He stilled his hands completely and stood up straight, though he remained several inches shorter than Alec. “I wonder -- is it because he’s your brother, your Parabatai, or another man that you hide it?” he asked, but then he shook his head. “Anyway, who am I to tell you, a Lightwood, the Shadowhunter law?” He paused, and at Alec’s stony expression he offered a tender, “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Alec.”

Alec looked down at Jace’s unconscious form, withdrawing his hands from where he still held them near Jace’s head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Magnus stepped around the table, pausing at Alec’s side. “You will,” he said.

Alec watched Magnus walk away from the corner of his eye. He saw Clary and Simon step up to him with concern clear in their eyes, Raphael and Luke watching with idle curiosity. Izzy, though, joined Alec in the center of the loft. She opened her mouth to speak, but Alec waved her off. “Don’t,” he pleaded. “Just… don’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> my shadowhunters sideblog is [@battlemagnus](https://battlemagnus.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
